Cautionary Tales: The Hearse
by JudeDeluca
Summary: A Cautionary Tales sidestory. Tina Wallace PG and Brian Landon TW are beating the winter blues with a holiday at a Florida beach. But, alone on a walk, Brian's vacation may be wrecked by the strange, black hearse which is coming down the road...
1. Part I

Disclaimer: I do not own Legion.

A side story, not so much a fairy tale as it is an urban legend, and adapted from the short story _The Hearse_, by J.B. Stamper in _More Tales for the Midnight Hour._

The main characters are Tina Wallace (Phantom Girl) and Brian Landon (Timber Wolf). Hope it's coherent enough.

On a side note, I once heard of a man who had a poor heart. He had been forced to walk outside during one of the hottest days of the year before he stumbled into an air-conditioned store. But the cold in the store was such a shock to his system he died of a heart attack.

* * *

Cautionary Tales: _The Hearse_

The tide ebbed and flowed. White clouds spread like slashes of paint on a blue canvas. Sun shining bright. Water blue, glittering aquamarine. Seaweed spread out, going in whatever direction the waves would pull it. Barely any wind. A beautiful day on the coast.

She was sprawled on her back, openly inviting the sun's rays, her companion sitting closer to the waves as they came up to his legs.

He felt something at his foot. Looked over. A dead crab washed up on shore, right by his toes. He nearly jumped back before he realized he had stepped on another one and let out a sound of disgust.

"Aww what's wrong puppy? It's just a little crab."

Brian Landon turned his gaze from the crab, over to his companion sprawled on a red towel on the white sand. Tina Wallace wore a black bathing suit which outline her pal, curvy figure. Her skin was as pale as New York snow, which they had managed to escape for the winter holidays.

"A dead crab." Brian corrected, still standing.

"Poor puppy. I didn't know you were so squeamish." Tina playfully pouted at Brian's grumpy scowl as he sat beside her on the sand. Now that the two were together, it was like looking at contrasting photographs.

Tina was small and thin, but with perfectly sculpted curves that could give her never-ending potential as a model. Hair, soft and shiny, flowing like black silk. And eyes which were round and perfect, which glittered like monochrome pearls.

Brian's hair was brown, and there was plenty of it. A beard on his face and a ponytail, and hair on his body that would make people think he was a werewolf, somewhat, especially with those eyes that seemed to examine a person as if he wanted to eat them.

"Isn't there anything else to do around here?" Brian complained, as he usually did. Tina found that cute. And that butt of his didn't hurt none either. He swatted a mosquito. Instead of saying 'ow', he just grunted.

"Well aren't you Mr. Popular?" Tina giggled. "And besides, there's plenty to do."

"Like what?" Brian asked. Tina sat up to get to eye level with him.

"Well you could just, y'know, go for a swim. I mean, that IS why the ocean's there. Besides being used to dump gangland killings of course." Tina herself had just come in from the ocean, and was laying on the towel to dry off while working on her tan. Brian saw the evidence of her quick dip on her chest, by the way the seawater had completely soaked her and was now causing certain… parts to arise as the suit she wore outlined them.

"I'm gonna go for a walk." Brian said, blushing and deciding to walk off his madly beating heart before they received an unexpected visitor.

"Well, just don't wander off too far." Tina told him, smirking. "I don't want to get a call from the zoo about them picking up a stray wolf on the shore." Now, it was Brian's turn to smirk.

"If the zoo does call, it'll probably be because your mom locked herself in the monkey house."

Tina's smile disappeared, and she slumped back down the towel and frowned up at the sky.

"Spoilsport." Tina muttered.

"Love you." He said, leaning down and planting one kiss on her cheek, reigniting her smile.

"Love you too." She replied, reaching around in her bag for a pair of sunglasses, to hide her drooping eyelids as he observed the coast. "And don't forget, you promised we'd go to the amusement park on the pier!"

"I won't!" He called back as he waved.

Brian and Tina had been spending the vacation on the Florida shore, away from the biting, depressing cold of Manhattan in the wintertime. They hitched a ride with Tina's mother, Wilhelmina Wallace, and her group of former suffragettes turned freedom fighters, always protesting one thing or another, whether it was animal rights or police brutality, or even discrimination in professional baseball, Wilhelmina had her hand in it. Lucky for Brian too, that they could ride along, because it gave Brian a chance to listen to all the embarrassing stories Tina's mother and her friends had about her, which he could use in his ongoing war against the information his back-stabbing, so-called "friends" had given Tina.

Brian wiped some sweat away from his brow and he continued his sojourn down the beach, passing by many of the other happy vacationers as he did. Little children building sandcastles with little plastic shovels and buckets. Older siblings tormenting their brothers and sisters with jellyfish and seaweed which had washed up on shore. Brian never understood the appeal, but, he didn't have any brothers and sisters. The ones to ask in that department would be Rocky, Garth, and Nora (Nora being the tormented, and Garth being both).

Tourists and old people who huddled under big umbrellas for fear of getting sunburn (and giving such strange looks towards him, as if they wanted to scold him for not getting a proper haircut). Parents wading together with their offspring in the waves. Couples making out on towels. Some local teenage girls who were checking out Brian's abs with blushing cheeks, and they weren't half bad from his perspective either. But, he was spoken for now, so he pushed those libidinous thoughts away.

He had finally passed by the last few people on the beach, a pair of parents who were reading from old, yellow-paged penny dreadfuls as their children waded in the water, until he was only, with only the sound of the seagulls, the crashing of the waves, and his own thoughts. This was about the farthest part of the beach, the deserted section which never met any human patronage unless tourism had reached it's peak. The part that people would pass by as they walked or drove into town, if they could see past the sand dunes.

Alone. All alone.

The sun had peaked, and the heat was now becoming unbearable. At least it was taking his mind of his boredom. Brian didn't like coming to beaches that much. All you could do was swim, which could be get boring after a while. And if that didn't suit you, you could just laze around and get a sunburn.

"Ow!"

SWAT.

__

Or getting eaten alive.

One mosquito was no problem. But sand fleas? A swarm. That was hell. They were currently making a feast of his arms and legs, and his swatting them away wasn't doing that much good. Finally, he eyed the water. The cold, cool, crashing waves that surged and retracted on the shore. His only course of action to jump right in, he regretted it instantly, as the icy water practically numbed his entire body, he felt worse instead of better. Extreme cold was no longer the universal answer to extreme heat.

He waded back out of the water, soaked, and had to move his hair out of his eyes so he could see where he was shambling too. Out in the distance he spied the sand dunes, and decided there would be the place to seek shaded relief as the heat returned with a vengeance. Picking up the pace, trying to kick out wet sand stuck between his toes and ignore some of the more persistent pests, he ran, but it seemed like forever. The water still dripping off his body was quickly starting to disappear in the heat. He muttered a curse to the sun and sighed in relief when he finally reached the dunes.

A little wooden fence of loosely strung together boards rested at the top of the smaller one. Brian miraculously found the strength to hop over the boards, and landed in a little cluster of sea oats before he started to climb up the taller one. The fleas had started to lose the battle, but some were willing to stick it out through the war, until Brian had made it to the top, thinking that he should be getting back to Tina, not liking the idea of leaving her alone, after it must've been so long. How long had it been? Ten minutes? Twenty? An hour? An eternity. Time must've gone on vacation. But, he stood there for a minute, all by himself again, with no even insect pests to worry about or crashing waves to alert him.

"Whoa. What the hell?" He said to himself with wide eyes.

Whatever feeling of being the king of the world was toppled by feelings of exclamation and curiosity as he surveyed the sight before his brown eyes. A road. A long, black road, which looked freshly paved by as it had been there forever. The summer heat wavered and danced a forbidden dance before his eyes, watching over and looking for any sign of life that walked on two legs and could speak in English. No such luck. Yet.

"What's that sound?"

Brian perked up his ears. The buzzing and biting of the fleas had stopped, and a new track was playing. A symphony of wheels turning and crunching rocks as it moved. A motor revving in a minor that was not in the alphabet. Far away, but so very clear. He had excellent ears. And in the distance, the form was now coming. A black blob which approached closer as the feeling of dread in his gut began to crawl up to his throat. The black was now becoming shinier, with silver painted on. Brian's jaw dropped when the form became clear.

A hearse.

A shiny, black, brand-new hearse. A funeral car. Long and sleek. Brian hated looking at those things. Everyone hates looking at a hearse. Because it means some poor bastard has bit the big one. Brian was unsure of this, if the oncoming hearse was indeed real, or a mirage. That ship sailed when it pulled up right in front of him, to his shock, as if it was heading straight for him.

In the black windows, he saw people. He saw twisted, contorted, screaming faces. Shock and mutilation, mute testaments to horror. The door swung open, and out the driver stepped. An unbearably tall man, bald with squinting, black eyes that seemed like bottomless tar pits, dragging down unsuspecting victims to their doom.

Brian wanted to run. He never felt this scared, not even when he had broken his leg, not that he would admit it. He couldn't take his eyes off the people he saw in the window, but somehow his gaze was stolen to the driver. A smooth, bald head. Tall, yet skinny. His black eyes stayed on Brian, and he smiled an eerie smile which made Brian feel like a small child, waiting for the Boogeyman to creep out of the closet.

The man's lips parted, and in a slow, grading voice that was like nails on a chalkboard, he croaked...

"Room for one more…"

He motioned with pale, bony fingers towards the passenger door. Brian silently gasped. Inside, there was girl, much younger then Tina, but with black hair that rested on her shoulders, and said blue eyes like robin eggs. She turned her eyes towards his, and he felt such unbearable sadness radiate out. Her mouth contorted, silently mouthing the word 'run'. She might've spoke the words, but they could've been drowned out by the man's quiet, perverse chuckle.

Brian wanted to comply, but he didn't want to leave this girl behind. The heat beating down on him, the world spinning like a top, the man's black eyes and sadistic grin. People screaming. Too much, like the long-ago feeling of an overdose.

And then he submerged in the cool, quiet darkness of nothing.

To Be Continued.


	2. Part II

Disclaimer: I do not own Legion.

Inspired by an urban legend and adapted from _The Hearse_ by J.B. Stamper in _More Tales for the Midnight Hour_. There will be an epilogue.

* * *

Cautionary Tales: _The Hearse - Part II_

Slowly, slowly, there was darkness. And then the light began to pierce the darkness as the sound of the ebb and tide of the waves pierced the muted sound barrier.

"Wa happen'd?"

He reached around, looking for something to support himself with, only to get a fistful of sand.

"Oh geez…" Brian muttered to himself and spitting out the bits of sand in his mouth. It was until the last shattered remnant of the nightmare had submerged in the sea of his mind that he awoke, but what really got him up was the blinding, stinging pain of his irritated, itchy skin.

Brian finally managed to get up and shake some of the sand stuck to his body and bathing shorts, but as he did bits of hot pain shot through his nerves. His arms and legs were covered in bright red, throbbing bite marks, a bit obscured by his hair, and there were some he could feel on his shoulders and the back of his neck. The sand fleas and the mosquitoes had pigged out on his unconscious body, and the heat magnified the itchy pain a thousand times.

Brian shielded his eyes as he looked up in the sky. The sun had gone from a blinding yellow to a dying scarlet color as the sky become orange. He looked at the sun. That red color. Red like blood. Like the bloody faces in the hearse.

He shook his head and tried to shake the memory of the hearse out of his head, before he got the idea to look back over the dunes. To his surprise, there were no tire marks, no proof at all that the hearse, or that man, had been there at all.

"A dream." Brian said to re-assure himself. "A hallucination. Yeah, that's comforting." He grumpily muttered to himself as he made his way back to the beach. He saw the water, and decided he did not care how cold it was. He closed his eyes, and jumped straight in.

"Geronimo!"

He made a big splash in the sea as the cold water effectively numbed his pain and sighed with relief. He stretched the strong muscles in his arms and legs and swam for a bit, trying to wash away whatever sand still clung to his body, still ignoring some of the smaller bits of pain that remained. The thought of those sad blue eyes and the bottomless black eyes remained, and then another thought came into Brian's face.

"Tina! Crap!" A wave hit him right in the face.

He dashed down the coast as fast as he could, which was pretty fast, completely soaked and hair in his eyes. Brian noticed the beach was completely deserted now. All that remained was some trash left behind by the more slovenly beach-goers, and some scraps of food which was being devoured by the seagulls. A feeling of dread sank to his gut as he saw the spot where they had been staying was now bare, which meant she probably went back to the hotel. Without looking for him, at least? And he didn't have a towel to dry off with. Which meant the locals were probably going to stare at him as if he was a wet dog which had swam in. He thought of it for a moment, and decided…

"Screw it."

He marched proudly back to the hotel, through the boardwalk and a couple of blocks down, still wet and basically not caring about the looks he was getting, but caring that the asphalt he was walking on was hot and burning his feet. By the time he got to the hotel, apologizing to the manager for getting the carpet wet, he marched up to their room and was about to knock on the door, before a thought crossed his mind.

__

Should I tell her about the hearse? And the man in black? Nah. She'd probably think I was just making up excuses so she won't kick my ass.

Before he could think of a course of action, the door opened in front of him, and there stood Tina, looking peach skinned and completely surprised.

"Uh, hey." He said, taken back. "I'm-" Brian was cut off when Tina quickly grabbed him and hugged him with all her might, ignoring that he was both wet and blushing.

"What happened?! Do you have any idea how worried I was?! I was going to call the police!" She pulled back so he could see the tears in her face, but she could see the twinge of pain in his.

"Uh, my arms are, *nhn*, kinda sore right now, so-"

"Suck it up, you baby." She told him, hugging him tighter. He actually felt relieved that she was so worried.

Tina explained that she pretty much combed most of the beach looking for him, not knowing he'd passed out behind the dunes. Brian gave her the best heartfelt apology he could. She scolded him for wandering around in the hot sun without protection, but she saw the evidence the pests had left behind and tried her to best to soothe it. She then told him she was about to head down to the main lobby to call the police to look for him.

Brian was still fighting a battle in his mind over whether or not to tell her about the hearse as he dried off and got dressed for dinner. Would it matter? Not really, possibly. But the feeling of horror still bit like the sand fleas, only in the back of his mind.

About fifteen minutes later, Tina had got a message from her mother that both her and her friends were planning to stay behind in the zoo nearby after it closed and were going to free the birds in the aviary. Tina cursed to herself on why she had such a demented mother, and Brian laughed about it, feeling better. But in the dining room of the hotel, he had no appetite for the fish filet on his plate and wondered why he talked Tina into ordering it.

"You weren't listening when the waiter took our orders. You want to have them take it back for a steak?" Tina asked.

"Yeah, that sounds good. A nice, bloody…" Brian bit his lip. He suddenly felt queasy.

"What is it?" Tina asked.

"I'm not hungry."

"You know, there are people out there who would sell their children for that food. This IS a depression, after all." Tina reprimanded him.

"Then they can have it." Brian muttered.

"Did you get all the sand out of your shorts, wolf boy, or are your undies just in a bunch?" Tina joked. She stopped giggling when he flicked his parsley at her face and it landed on her nose, in between her eyes.

"Bulls-eye."

"Ha ha." Tina said. "Hope you're not still in this wonderful mood when we ride the Zephyr." Tina said with excitement in her eyes as she finished the last word.

"The what?"

The Zephyr. One of the biggest, and few, roller coasters Brian had ever seen in his life. Construction completed just some months ago and already the best attraction the boardwalk had during the holiday season. And to think they saved money with the lumber they bought, so it got finished earlier. Brian had only ever ridden the Cyclone in Coney Island. He liked riding them, but Tina looked a bit hesitant.

"Scared, princess?" Brian cocked an eyebrow at his girlfriend, with his arm around her waist as the two looked up at the curves and twists in the wooden coaster. Around them, they heard calliope music and people shouting. Vendors selling off junk food. Clowns walking around with balloons, or juggling bowling pins and flaming batons. Game booths set up and operated so no one could knock down the milk bottles and win a stuffed bear. People yelling in surprise as they bumped their heads in the house of mirrors.

"No." Tina said. "I just wish I hadn't filled up at dinner." She muttered to herself, which was hidden under the screams they heard as the cars descended.

"Then that would explain what THIS is." He squeezed her waist and laughed at his own joke.

"The princess is not amused, doggy." Tina scowled.

"Take a joke, your highness." Brian retorted.

"I'll take two tickets, thank you very much."

Brian conceded in defeat and paid for two tickets, then his jaw dropped at how long the line was for the front row. He tried to plead with her that they should switch to another lane, ultimately regretting the weight joke he made as Tina refused. The time it took for the line to move had made Brian completely forget about the hearse.

"Come ooooooon." Tina groaned. "It didn't take so long for the Titanic to go down."

"I think our suffering is about to end." Brian pointed out. Indeed, the next car had come, and now they were at the front of the line. The people started to file into their cars.

"Come on, let's, oh no." Tina said. "Shoot."

"What?" Brian asked. Tina pointed to the car.

"It looks like there's only room for one more."

Brian felt as if someone had set off a bomb when she spoke. He turned his gaze to the car, and there was only one spot left. He looked up, and saw a familiar sight.

"No." He gasped.

The operator was an unbearably tall man dressed in black. His head was shiny and smooth, like an egg. His eyes were squinted, and colored like smoldering hot tar. His lips turned into a disturbing grin as he breathed the words…

"Room for one more…"

He motioned to the empty seat, and Brian's horror doubled as he saw the girl with the black hair and robin egg eyes sitting in the seat waiting for it to go. She got the feeling she was watched when her friend behind her, a blonde girl, nudged her.

"That guy's checking you out." She whispered.

The dream girl turned, and her horror reflected Brian's. The operator tried to grab his arm, but Brian managed to avoid it as he hastily dragged a protesting Tina out of there.

"Here." He gave their tickets to two passing teenage boys. "My compliments."

"What was that about?" Tina said angrily.

Brian looked up. Somehow, the ride hadn't started yet. He tried to think of a reason that didn't sound like the words of a schizophrenic. He surveyed the area, and an idea popped in his head. He turned Tina around.

"Surprise!" He said with faux excitement. They were in front of the Tunnel of Love. Her anger disappeared.

"Oh, Brian." She blushed. "You softy."

"Yeah, I'm Mr. Romance. Come on." He pulled her to the Tunnel, devoid of a line, as most of the people were waiting to get on the Zephyr. They sailed down a dark tunnel decorated with hearts and cupids as sappy music played throughout the tunnel.

"Isn't this better then a roller coaster?" He asked.

"With you? Duh." She practically melted in his arms and their lips intertwined.

"AAAAHHHHHH!!!"

They heard screams ring out.

"Sounds like it finally started." Tina said.

"Yeah." Brian said.

"You want to tell me what that was about back there?" Tina prodded. "Come on." Brian sighed.

"Look, Tina, back at the beach, I, I don't know what it was but, I saw, something."

"What?" Tina asked.

"It might've been a dream, or a mirage, but this hearse pulled up by the road."

"A hearse? You're kidding." Tina said.

"It's true. And that guy who was working the ride was the driver. And he said-"

He was cut off when they felt the ground quake. The water churned and they got splashed. The boat nearly tipped over and Tina almost fell in before Brian caught her. The screams continued. Then, they heard something plop in the water. The boat exited the tunnel. Brian wished they hadn't.

People screaming, crying, moaning. Wood splintered. Metal twisted.

"Oh my God…" Tina gasped.

The Zephyr had fallen to the ground. Caved in. The wood rotted out. Shoddy construction. Brian looked away from the carnage of the track, of the bodies crushed and impaled on the wreck. They could still hear the people running and screaming in the frenzy. Especially those who had friends and loved ones who were in the ride when it collapsed.

"Don't look." Brian turned Tina away from the massacre and held her close, to shield her from the damage.

"Just don't look."

"Oh God. If you got on." Tina cried. Bitter, salty tears ran down her cheeks.

They faced the Tunnel, Tina with her back turned and face buried in Brian's chest. But in the corner of his eye, Brian noticed that the boy who worked the ride was staring at something in the water. The boy had turned as white as a sheet and looked physically sick. Something which had amazingly rolled into the water, which was leaking out from it's bloody stump and looking up with eyes as black as the new moon. Brian closed his eyes and just stood there with his arms wrapped around Tina, crying, and telling her it was okay.

"Amazed it held out for as long as it did." The inspectors said. An investigation would be launched. People would be brought to trial for the mess which had happened.

He didn't know what had happened that day. Or why it did.

But Brian Landon thanked whatever it was that happened on the beach, especially that night, as he held Tina so close to him in bed.

Thankful that he managed to escape from the man in the hearse.


	3. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I do not own Legion of Super-Heroes.

This is the end of the Hearse. This girl, Aria Campbell, she has a complex history, pertaining to the Five Years Later stories, but she ties in with Timber Wolf. And, for all we know, she's managed to avoid Zero Hour, and she's still in the 21st Century of New Earth. Unless Superboy-Prime's tantrums managed to wipe out her as well.

* * *

Cautionary Tales: The Hearse - Epilogue

Aria Campbell would never be able to explain what happened that day. Or the day before. This was not the first time she had rode the Tornado on the boardwalk. She was here for two weeks with her father, Francis, her twin brother Cody, and her best friend Laurie. And she avoided death. She didn't know if there was a name for these kinds of things. These brushes with death. Right now, she didn't care. That day, yesterday, she had fallen asleep on the beach, when she awoke, Laurie was gone. She searched frantically for her best friend, but she couldn't find her. She walked all the way down to the deserted part of the beach, beyond the sand dunes, and, like an oil stain smearing the concrete landscape, she saw a black shape moving towards her in the summer haze. A sleek, black hearse. And a sinister figure beckoning to her, to enter. When she awoke, she found Laurie standing over her, wondering why she wandered off when she just went to use the bathroom.

Now, Aria did not go to the boardwalk that night. They went to the matinee three blocks down from the hotel. Aria had shaken the dream off. She recognized the man. He was the operator for the roller coaster. Nothing strange about that. But she just couldn't shake the feeling that something bad would happen. And Cody picked up on that. Today, he said he wasn't feeling good. That he wouldn't be going to the boardwalk again this night. Twins are often sensitive to the feelings of their siblings, and Aria felt Cody's pain as Cody felt Aria's spectre of death hovering above her. But that didn't stop Laurie from dragging her down to the front of the Tornado, sitting behind her. Aria felt anxious and scared, waiting for the ride to end so she could see there was nothing to be scared of.

But that was before she saw him.

The man, the man that was in the passenger seat of the hearse. The man with the beard and ponytail, with eyes like a wolf. Their expressions mirrored one another, as Aria recalled as he mouthed the words "run" in her dream. And run she did. With Laurie behind her. Just in time to see the coaster crash behind them as they left the boardwalk.

Aria Campbell would never be able to explain what happened that day. To Laurie, to Cody, to her dad, to anyone. All she knows is, that she ran away from the man who was driving the hearse. Because of the man with the eyes of a wolf, warning her. He saved her life. Just as she did his.

And neither knew the other's name. Sometimes, fate works like that for no apparent reason. That's why it's called fate. You'll never know what happens next.

_The End._


End file.
